Jill Kerner Schon, co-founder and owner of The PaintBar in Newton, serves as bartender for the refreshment side of things during breaks from painting.

Maureen McCarthy, Special to the Journal

When veteran painter Jennifer Clement tried to find a way to expand the audience for her art and her art classes, drawing up a “paint-and-sip” business quickly came to mind.

In October, Clement launched The Artist Bar — a Tewksbury business that she bills as a traveling “paint-and-sip” party. She sets up shop at venues such as restaurants, function halls, and corporate events in which participants can grab a drink or two while learning how to paint.

“I love the fact that people are sipping wine,” Clement said. “I’m about (customers) having fun and building confidence and I think the cocktails add to the loosening up and carefree attitude.”

In recent decades, the art bar movement solidified in the southern states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and eventually expanded to urban cities such as Chicago, Seattle and Raleigh. But the trend has only recently arrived in the Boston area. The Paint Bar opened for business in Newton in 2010, and the South Boston-based Urban Art Bar, DOTArtBar in Dorchester and The Artist Bar all opened last fall.

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